When I read that Apple had patented a “smart bike,” I was hoping for an eco-friendly motorcycle or a jammin’ white bicycle. Unfortunately it’s neither of those things, but what’s interesting to me is the closeness in resemblence to a recent tech product that’s made rounds on Wired, Gizmodo, and other tech sites.
Apple’s Smart Bike patent is basically Nike + for your bicycle. As your ride through the streets of San Francisco, you’ll get stats on how fast you’re going, interval times between events, altitude & elevation, wind speed, and location. AppleInsider points out that while all of this is done through your iPhone, GPRS, CDMA, EV-DO, EDGE, 3GSM, DECT, IS-136/TDMA, iDen, LTE are listed as ways in which information can be transferred.
But what’s interesting is that this patent has shown up after the LiveRider made its debut in the tech blogs. LiveRider is an interesting piece of kit you can get your for iPhone at $99 (the same price as a Fitbit) that provides similar information: location, road inclination, speed, power output, calories burned, etc.
Weird?
[Patently Apple via AppleInsider]
